Alan Jones Biography: Alan Stanley Jones is a former Formula One driver from Australia. He was the first driver with the Williams team to win a Formula One World Championship, becoming World Drivers’ Champion in 1980 and the second Australian after triple World Champion Sir Jack Brabham.
Alan Jones Biography Biography
Alan Jones was born on 2 November 1946 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Initially, he worked at his father’s Holden dealership while competing in Mini and Cooper races. The younger Jones departed for Europe in 1967 to make his reputation, but he could not afford a Formula Ford drive. Therefore, he returned to his native country but returned to the United Kingdom in 1970 and started growing his career alongside fellow citizen Brian McGuire. The two men purchased and sold used cars. Jones eventually could afford a Formula Three, Lotus 41, which he planned to convert to Formula Two specifications and sell in Australia to finance a season of Formula Three.
Alan Jones Wiki
| Name | Alan Jones |
| Date Of Birth | 2 November 1946 |
| Birth Place | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Height | 6′ 0″ |
| Weight | N/A |
| Zodiac Sign | Scorpio |
| Profession | Racing Driver |
| Net Worth | N/A |
| Car Collection | N/A |
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Alan Jones Career
His first race was the 1975 Spanish Grand Prix at the fast Montjuc circuit in the Hesketh he purchased, although the weekend was one of the most tragic in Formula One history, with five spectators dying in Rolf Stommelen’s accident. After four Formula One races, the team stopped competing after Stiller moved abroad. However, Graham Hill’s team designated Jones as a replacement for the injured Stommelen. In four races for the team, his highest finish was fifth at the Nürburgring.
In 1976 he received his first full-time Formula One drive with John Surtees’ team. Due to Jones’ car’s infamous Durex sponsorship, the BBC refused to cover Formula One races throughout the season. His finest performance in the TS19 was a fourth-place finish in Japan during the season’s final race. In 1977, Jones refused to drive for Surtees, opting to sit out the season rather than remain with the team.
Jones was racing in America when the Shadow team signed him to replace Tom Pryce, who had been slain in a freak accident in South Africa. He took on the opportunity and won his first race at the Osterreichring, finishing seventh in the championship with 22 points.
At the end of 1977, he caught the attention of both Frank Williams and Enzo Ferrari. He met with Ferrari at Maranello, but Gilles Villeneuve got the driving. Williams was attempting to restore his Formula One team. After Williams restarted his team in 1977, he entrusted Jones with giving them their first taste of success. Williams Grand Prix struggled in its early years, and Jones was tasked with giving them their first taste of success. In addition to Williams, he signed with Haas-Hall in 1978 and won the Can-Am championship driving a Lola 333CS. Jones won nine pole positions in ten races but could not compete at Laguna Seca due to a Formula One scheduling conflict. Replacement Brian Redman finished 12th in that race due to intermittent ignition caused by a crimped kill wire under the valve cover. Jones won five of the nine races he entered (Atlanta, Mosport, Road America, Mid-Ohio, and Riverside).
He finished second to Elliot Forbes-Robinson at Charlotte after striking a chicane. He retired at St. Jovite due to an accident and lost a radiator at Watkins Glen. He finished third after losing a shift fork and being left with only second and fifth ratios on the tight road circuit in Trois-Rivières. At that race, water-injected brakes were introduced in Can-Am, devised by the Haas team and copied by others with varying degrees of success.
Jones competed in one Can-Am race in 1979 (Mid-Ohio), where he and Keke Rosberg finished first and second, with Jones gaining success. Williams’ finest performance of the season was a second-place finish at Watkins Glen. Using the Williams FW07, Jones helped place the team on the Formula One map in 1979 by winning four races in five events near the end of the season. Jones placed third in the championship that year, which catalyzed an outstanding 1980 season. Jones’s best Formula One year had just begun during the ground-effect era.
